Gore fires second salvo on climate change

Published: 11 August 2017

Ten years after Al Gore's Oscar winning An Inconvenient Truth injected the issue of climate change into broad public consciousness, the former US vice president returns to the screen with a more complex sequel.

The original film was instrumental in Gore being awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. It warned there was a problem, and said the world should do something.

In the first part of An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, Gore tells us there is a tragedy unfolding, and that there is now much more evidence to support what we need to be worried about. The second part depicts the power politics that led to the decision of the United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Paris in 2015. In both parts, the camera follows Gore around as he engages with the issue. The movie reveals as much about Gore, as the topic of his concern.

Gore demonstrates in the film a life commitment to climate change. The sequel reports the progress that has been made to tackle the problem, and the extent to which the action and policies of world leaders are being affected.

The movie argues strongly for climate responsibility, for effective political change, and for the fact that morality demands it. It says that the world is close to doing something about climate Change. But agreement is not yet total.

The film illustrates terrible climate events, and uses archival footage to show them. The flooding of the National September 11 Memorial Museum in New York City confirms the prediction that Gore made in 2006.

Climate change disasters are now a solid weapon in Gore’s armamentarium, and they offer a worst-case scenario for similar effects occurring in the future. The images of the catastrophes are visually very compelling and arouse strong emotion, and Gore is aiming them at those needing to be convinced.

As a solution, the documentary favours support for a clean-energy, solar-driven economy. The film has been made to educate others about the developments that have occurred - not only in relation to the problem, but also with respect to possible solutions - and it does this well.